Betrayed
by Lillielle
Summary: Disclaimer: I own nothing. Harry didn't mean to eavesdrop, but what he heard changed everything. Set in third year. Obviously AU.
1. Chapter 1

_Notes: So a bit of explanation before the story. I like reading stories where Dumbledore's really manipulative, the Weasleys are being paid off, Hermione's being paid/blackmailed, etc. But most of the ones I've read either sucked or Harry ended up the heir to the entire Wizarding World, it seemed, with super-powers to match. And just...no. So instead, a perfectly normal Harry, manipulative Dumbledore, a nice-ish Snape thrown in the mix, etc. Also somewhere down the line, a Resorting. Sorry the first chapter is so short, but this is essentially the prelude to stranger things to come. Also, a word of warning, this story won't be updated as much as some of my other ones. But I will update it! Promise. _

_Anyway. On to the story!_

Harry didn't mean to overhear anything. He'd gotten to the train station early and had staked out a good spot just inside the barrier, where he didn't have to watch the station personnel giving him and his owl funny looks. He'd had enough of that already and gotten sick of it, particularly when a nosy old woman with cat's eye glasses on a chain asked him, in a rather piercing voice, if he'd gone daft, toting around an owl like that. He'd nearly hexed her and only the realisation that if he did, he would get in trouble with the Ministry _again_ kept his hand from straying to his wand.

He didn't mean to overhear the Weasleys talking, was the thing. He hadn't met Ron's dad yet, but the unmistakable tones of the Weasley matriarch reached through the bricks, grating on his ears.

"But what if he finds out?" he heard a lower, masculine voice ask worriedly.

"You worry too much, Arthur! He won't find out a thing. Potter's fast friends with our Ron and soon Ginny as well, I have no doubt," Molly Weasley said reassuringly. "Besides, Dumbledore's ensured it. With that Granger chit, too. Now shush, the children are coming, we can talk later."

Moments later, an exuberant set of redheaded twins burst through the entrance and Harry was hard-put not to immediately jump up and demand an explanation. They didn't notice him, too intent on joining their friend a bit closer to the train, and Harry was just as glad for it. He couldn't understand what the Weasleys had meant. Find out about what?

Sirius Black? But he knew about _him_. The gossip around Diagon Alley had ensured that, if nothing else. But an Azkaban escapee wouldn't bring up the question of what Dumbledore may have 'ensured.' It made no sense, and Harry didn't like it.

So instead of making himself known and going off to sit with Ron or Hermione, he picked a compartment rather farther down the train, one down from the one with a rather shabby-looking man slumped against the wall, snoring, and wrapped his invisibility cloak around himself and his belongings. Hedwig hooted reassuringly at him, and he slipped a finger between the bars of her cage, gently ruffling her feathers. He had a lot of thinking to do.


	2. Chapter 2

At first, Harry wanted to brush it all off. Stop hiding under the invisibility cloak, find his friends, apologise for worrying them, and have a nice, complication-free trip to Hogwarts. Goodness knew he had enough going on his life. Did he have to make mountains out of molehills, too? The Weasleys could have been talking about anything. Perhaps even talking about some sort of safety precaution for the upcoming year, or be referencing Sirius Black in some way that Harry couldn't figure out, because he'd only heard the tail end of the conversation. Not to mention, he could have misheard anyway. He'd been eavesdropping through a _wall_.

His face burned with embarrassment and he nearly climbed up from the floor, jostling Hedwig's cage until she scolded him with one sharp noise, when a sudden thought struck him.

This compartment was utterly empty besides him. Carefully pulling his invisibility cloak around him, Harry tiptoed to the door and peeked out, into the compartment across from him, and for good measure (sliding out of the door just a hair), into the next compartments as well. Aside from the still-snoring, shabby man in the very next one, the back four were totally empty. The ones ahead didn't look particularly full either.

Harry trudged back to his spot, casting aside the cloak in favour of a disillusionment spell cast on the window instead. He stared out the rain-streaked window and brooded. What had Ron said, that first train ride? _Can I sit here? Everywhere else is full._

Only it couldn't have been. Because there were less people first year than there were now, and the train wasn't even close to full now. Granted, he supposed that Ron could have meant there was no compartment that was completely empty and at least Harry was a fellow first year, but still. It was at least a bit odd, wasn't it?

_Potter's fast friends with Ron! Dumbledore's ensured it!_

But how could Dumbledore ensure a friendship by chance meeting on the Hogwarts Express? Unless Ron had already known who he was? He pondered this for a moment, scarcely noticing how the temperature began to dip down and the train began to slow. The twins had helped him. Had known who he was. Or guessed. But Ron had professed disbelief and uncertainty. It was hard to believe he would pass up an empty compartment or a chance to sit with someone who looked friendlier on a supposed prank by the twins. Then again, Harry _was_ "The Boy Who Lived."

Harry sighed. All he was doing was coming up with more questions than answers, and it was making his head hurt. He rubbed fretfully at his scar before he realised the entire train had jolted to a stop. Goosebumps prickled on his entire body as the temperature lowered still more, and he breathed frost on the windowpane, rubbing it away and looking out. Everything seemed entirely ordinary.

Acting on some barely understood hunch, he grabbed his wand and stood up, but before he could reach the door, it slid smoothly open, a black-hooded, scabrous _thing_ standing in the doorway. Icy breath filled the compartment and Harry clutched at his scar, gasping in pain as a brilliant flash of green light flooded his mind and all he could hear were desperate, anguished shrieks. He slumped to the floor, glasses hanging by one ear, as Hedwig hooted madly at the intruder, her wings bashing against the sides of the cage.

"Not Harry! Anyone but Harry!" he heard in his mind, and then blackness swallowed him.


	3. Chapter 3

"Harry? Harry! _Harry!_"

Harry blinked, swimming slowly back up to consciousness as an unfamiliar, hoarsely male voice called his name. As the world slid back into focus, he noticed the shabby man from the next compartment bent over him. He looked worried.

"Ah, good, you're awake, Mister Potter," the man exclaimed, apparently back on more formal terms now that Harry had re-joined the land of the awake. Harry nodded numbly and struggled into a sitting position, feeling like he'd just been trampled by a herd of hippogriffs and then stomped by a minotaur for good measure.

"Here," the man nodded, handing him a large square of chocolate. "Eat that. It helps with how dementors make you feel."

"Dementors?" Harry asked, nibbling the corner and feeling a delightful warmth spread through him, chasing away the icy numbness that had shrouded his whole body.

"Wretched creatures," the man nodded, sliding into the seat opposite Harry. "They guard Azkaban-the wizarding prison," he clarified at Harry's baffled look. "They feed on emotions. Happy emotions. They can bring up your worst memory and make you relive it, over and over and over...you can see why Azkaban is a horrible place." The man coughed. "The Ministry's deployed them around centres of wizarding activity to be on the lookout for Sirius Black."

"I heard my mum, I think," Harry mumbled through a rather large bite of chocolate. "She was screaming."

"I'm sorry, Mister Potter," the man said, amber eyes clouded with sadness.

"Who are you anyway?" Harry blurted out. "Um, sir," he tacked on, flushing. The man smiled genially at him.

"Professor Remus Lupin at your service," the man smiled. "I'm your new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. I was also," his smile turned a bit sad. "A friend of your parents."

"You were?" Harry leaned forward eagerly, but at that moment, the compartment door slammed open and Hermione filled the empty space.

"Oh, _Harry_!" she cried out, lunging toward him and nearly smushing his chocolate into his shirt. "I was so worried when we couldn't find you on the train and then those dementors..." She collapsed in sobs, leaving Harry to pat her shoulder awkwardly and silently plead for help from Lupin. The shabby-looking professor only looked amused at his plight.

"Hermione, lay off," he finally snapped. "I'm fine, okay? Professor Lupin fixed me right up." He gestured at the professor and Hermione went absolutely crimson.

"Sorry, sir, I didn't mean to ignore you," she stammered out, but Lupin just waved off her apology.

"It's fine, Miss Granger," he smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling. "Mister Potter, why don't you go on with your friend? We'll be arriving at Hogwarts soon."

Harry nodded and allowed himself to be pulled out the door, belongings awkwardly clattering after him. It was only once he was safely ensconced in Hermione's and Ron's compartment that he realised there was no way Lupin should have known Hermione's last name.


	4. Chapter 4

_Notes: Thank you so much for all the reviews! There will be people who stand beside Harry, yes. More points to thicken the plot in this chapter, plus the whole Sirius Black escaping thing lends a damper on school life, for some reason... XD_

The rest of the trip was uneventful. Hermione scolded him for not sitting with them, and he made up some stupid excuse about not finding them, and just picking any old compartment. Ron accepted it with equanimity, but there was a suspicious glint in Hermione's amber-brown eyes that made Harry think the excuse hadn't worked as well as he'd have liked.

For once, he was hopeful he'd get to see a Sorting but no, as soon as the train stopped, he was bustled off by Madam Pomfrey, who gave him a thorough going-over in an antechamber off the Entrance Hall, and only let him go once he'd had yet _another_ hefty square of chocolate. At this rate, he thought ruefully as he finally slipped into the Great Hall, just in time to see Professor McGonagall toting the Sorting Hat away, he'd never see another Sorting _and_ he'd turn into a spotted blimp.

As he approached the Gryffindor table, he saw Ron and Hermione with their heads _very_ close together as they held a whispered conversation. For a moment, Harry was sure they were talking about him, then he mentally thwacked himself. Really? Even if they were, what did it matter? They were his _best friends_. Was he really going to throw that away, for a fragment of overheard conversation and a vague suspicion?

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed when she caught sight of him, her cheeks flushed. "I didn't see you there."

"Pomfrey finally let me loose," he grinned as he slid into his place. "Why? Talking about me?"

"No," she said, but the denial was blatantly unconvincing, and Harry was sure he saw Ron elbow Hermione in the ribs. Just then, the Headmaster tapped his glass for silence, so Harry didn't have a chance to pursue it further.

"I would like to remind students how imperative it is to remain within boundaries this year," Dumbledore said gravely, eyes not twinkling for once. "The escaped convict, Sirius Black, is still out there, and the Ministry currently has no leads on his whereabouts. If you know _anything_ that may lead to his capture, please see me or one of the other professors as soon as possible. And do not sneak out. Into Hogsmeade, into the Forbidden Forest...nowhere. For one, although I have, as of now, persuaded the Minister to avoid stationing dementors at Hogwarts' gates, they are still very much in evidence throughout Britain, and dementors do not understand excuses. Thank you."

He sat down, and a babble of new conversation broke out. Lost in a hushed exchange about what exactly dementors were capable of doing, Harry almost forgot about Ron elbowing Hermione, and the secrecy of their talk.

Almost.


End file.
